The company now plans to complete the hydrocracker
optimization project during a turnaround in October, instead of
in October 2014 as previously scheduled, according to a July 18
filing with state regulators. The refinery already planned to
shut a crude unit and a coker this October for about 30 days of
maintenance, according to a person familiar with the schedule.

The project will increase the size of the unit to 110,000
barrels a day from 90,000, according to a 2011 filing. A
hydrocracker uses hydrogen as a catalyst to break down heavy gas
oil into higher value products, including diesel fuel that can
be exported to South America and Europe.

“We’ve focused primarily on diesel exports at Garyville,”
said Donald Templin, Marathon’s chief financial officer, in
March at a Raymond James conference. “We think that distillate
and export opportunities are very attractive going forward, and
so, we wanted to make an investment there.”

Jamal Kheiry, a Marathon spokesman based at the company’s
headquarters in Findlay, Ohio, declined by e-mail to comment on
the work. The Garyville plant can process 522,000 barrels per
calendar day, Kheiry said. The refinery runs primarily heavy,
sour crude oils, according to Marathon’s website.

Other Work

Marathon in another filing asked for an expedited review of
a project to install jumpover equipment during the October
turnaround that would allow the fluid catalytic cracker to
increase its feed rate by 6,000 barrels a day during work on the
heavy gasoil hydrotreater.

The company also plans to modify relief valves and other
equipment that are limiting rates on a naphtha hydrotreater and
a platformer. The company requested an expedited review for the
permit, and said work is planned to begin once state regulators
approve it.

The work will be completed around the time of a January
2014 turnaround, the company said. The unit can restart in
January or February once work is complete.

That project will increase production of platformate, a
high-octane gasoline blending component, by 5,300 barrels per
day. That may increase gasoline production by the same amount,
according to the application.